Application of Grey-PROMETHEE Method for Parametric Optimization of a Green Powder Mixed EDM Process

With the increasing demands for machining of advanced engineering materials using different non-traditional machining (NTM) processes, their detrimental effects on the environment cannot be averted. Powder mixed electrical discharge machining (PMEDM) is a popular NTM process that can efficiently generate complex shape geometries on diverse difficult-to-cut engineering materials. However, machining of the work materials using PMEDM process involves generation of large volume of toxic gases and harmful substances which are quite fatal to the machine operators. While taking advantages of both the grey relational analysis and preference ranking organization method for enrichment of evaluation (PROMETHEE), this paper proposes the application of an integrated approach for parametric optimization of a green PMEDM process, thereby minimizing its effect on the environment while maintaining the desired quality of the machined components/parts. Influences of different preference functions in PROMETHEE on the derived parametric intermixes and the predicted response values are also studied. Analysis of variance results and the developed surface plots further illustrate the effects of PMEDM process parameters on its machining ability. It is observed that this approach can attain better response values as compared to other popular mathematical tools and is also quite efficient in achieving green machining environment for the considered PMEDM process with enhanced performance.